6/23/10

The War Walker Squadron is one of my favorite parts about my new style of list. (See last post) They're like a sneaky left hook. Their biggest feature: A cheap unit with lots of Dakka. With other expensive choices in the Heavy Support slot it is nice to see that I can have 18 Str 6 Ap 5 shots for slightly more than the cost of a baseline Fire Prism. I've used them in my last five games now, lost a total of 9 War Walkers in all, and wrecked a fair amount of face. Some career Highlights:

Game #1 vs. Blood Angels - Outflanked behind an outflanking Baal Predator and immobilized it with shots to the rear. Tied up Assault Marines in close combat for two turns before succumbing to Power Fists.

Game #2 vs. Tyranids - Outflanked onto the table and mopped up some Winged Warriors and Gaunts, tied up warriors in close combat until turn 6 where they met their end.

Game #3 vs. Orks - Came onto the board normally and removed a 7 man squad of Ork Lootas, then survived a 30-man Ork mob assault and slowly but surely picked it apart in the remaining rounds of combat. Lost two walkers to power klaws

Game #4 vs. Daemons - Less than spectacular, Outflanked on the wrong side of the table and fired pot shots at plague bearers

Game #5 vs. Daemonhunters - Outflanked onto the table, obliterated an Inquisitor's retinue, cleaned up a massed squad of guardsmen in close combat. After losing one to a Vindicare Assassin, they continued to pour shuriken into the woods holding a heavy weapons crew.

That is a nice resume considering what my Falcons normally do. Mosts games my Falcons fly around all shaken and stuff.

Now before I said that they were like a sneaky left hook, I mean more than that then they outflank onto the table and destroy stuff. There's a meta-game psychology attached to them. They are unassuming Armor 10 vehicles with the cheapest guns Eldar money can buy. Less intimidating, than say, A fire prism or Wraithlord. In fact, my Harlequin get the most attention in my previously described list. This leaves the War Walkers plenty of time to move into position.

You might be asking, "Isn't the Scatter Laser a better option? It has better range and 1 more shot. Why not take 6 of those instead of Shuriken Cannons?" For me the answer was related to saving points, but really I feel it's a matter of opinion. Scatter Lasers cost three times more than Shuriken Cannons, multiply that 6 times and the cheapness of the unit goes out the window. The differences between AP 5 and AP 6 may be unworthy of mention, but consider how many more units you can flat out kill with an AP 5 weapon over an AP 6. Who has armor 6? Orks, Kroot?. Who has armor 5? Some Eldar, most Imperial Guard, several sub-species of Nid, and some Tau. Weapons are progressively more awesome the better an AP they have.

Let's get back to tactics with these guys. Ideally suited for hoard armies, you can use them a little differently and still get the same bang for your buck. The Str 6 shot is good enough for all but the thickest tank armor and you can use these guys to pop transports like Rhinos and Chimeras. Or get at the rear of most other thanks and pummel them with shots as I did against that Baal Predator (He thought he'd be fast like Eldar! Showed you buddy!) You'll wound the inhabitants of said Transports on a 2+ more often than not, so even if they have 3+ armor saves, you're still likely to down a few. The biggest hindrance to this firepower is the BS 3 these Walkers shoot at. Why the Eldar don't have a Path of the Vehicle Operations Specialist is beyond me! Counter this drawback with Guide and you essentially have 6 twin-linked shuriken cannons! Relatively slow compared to other vehicles and namely other Eldar vehicles, War Walkers can take some effort to get them into position. Outflanking is really a good option. You'll get to where you want to be 2/3 of the time. Generally when it comes to outflanking players will not consider outflankers or at least not deem them a big enough threat. If they are concerned they will keep their forces centralized. Find out which type of player you're facing and use it to your advantage. More often than not your opponent could care less that three goofy looking Eldar Walkers can coming in from the side of the table, if so, walk on and go to work. If they are concerned they will condense their forces in the center of the table. Use this to your advantage and let other units like swooping hawks have some fun dropping grenades on the clustered infantry or multi-assaulting some tanks with haywire grenades. May be a far fetched plan, but not impossible. As I said earlier, the War Walker Squadron is generally unassuming. In a sense it doesn't draw Aggro as much as other units. That reason alone is what makes it good.